


Conflagration of Shadows

by Anarchyinplasma



Series: Life and Times of a Risen [3]
Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 01:26:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9525542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anarchyinplasma/pseuds/Anarchyinplasma
Summary: Arcturus has a bone to pick with the Shadows of Yor.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Yet more about my destiny OC, this writing is really flowing well.

“Lord Shaxx, I need to speak with you.” Shaxx turned from the new guardian he’d been talking to, eager to get started in the crucible, and towards the risen in the doorway.  
“Can this wait, Lord Arc-?” The hunter cut him off.  
“I haven’t been called that in a long time and I’ve only just earned it back, don’t call me that; and no, it can’t wait, I need to speak with you now, and alone.” Shaxx rumbled out a dismissal to the new titan, who sped off into the next room to ask Commander Zavala about some new low-level patrols on Venus, as well as ask who had such respect instilled in them by Lord Shaxx.

Arcturus drew close.  
“That crucible match you and Ikora were discussing, the one with mysterious results from Blind Watch, I need all your info.” Shaxx started.  
“How do you know about that? Those results are classified?” Arcturus snorted with laughter and folded his arms.  
“I knew Dredgen Yor before he was Dredgen Yor, I pulled Thorn out of his cold dead fingers in the middle of a North American forest and I’ve kept her from the worlds ever since, so you’re gonna tell me everything I need to know about these idiots or I’m gonna have to go to Cayde, and I really don’t wanna do that for various reasons.”

Shaxx sighed.  
“There were a couple of them, both hunters, nightstalkers, oddly strong considering they’re multi classers, unlike you. Light seemed a bit more wild but it was written off as interference until they started firing cannons like that.” He gestured to the hand cannon hidden between Arcturus and his cape. Arcturus nodded.  
“Got names for me?” Shaxx sighed and picked a pad off his table.  
“Had a one of Ikora’s hidden come in, said she recognised them. He quoted from his pad.  
“We were facing a full squad. I recognized a couple of them—Orsa, Teben—but they were different. Decked out in dark gear and set to intimidate. I took it as an attempt at psychological warfare— up the creep factor in a creepy place. But it was more than that. They had changed.”

Arcturus dropped his head into his hands, Shaxx looked up at him before looking back down at his pad. “One more thing, these two, Teben Grey and Zyre Orsa, apparently they’ve started going by some different names, Dredgen Vale and Dredgen Bane, Part of a group calling themselves the Shadows of Yor.” There was swearing and as Lord Shaxx looked up, Arcturus was already sprinting out of the door and vaulting one of Eris’ tables to get to the stairs quicker.

As Arcturus sprinted to the hanger, Callahan pinged at him.  
“You’ve got mail.”  
“What?” Arcturus asked as he sprinted past Holliday and vaulted the railing to get back to his ship quicker, smirking despite himself as one of the techs flipped him off as he nearly upset a table full of tools.  
“Three new messages,” Callahan replied, scrolling casually through the inbox, “two from Shaxx and Ikora respectively, Ikora has included you in a conversation with the unfortunate hidden who faced the Shadows in crucible. And one with no sender, coordinates and a small message.” The ghost quoted directly from his feed  
“Congratulations Dredgen Turin, you qualify.”

Arcturus groaned as he made his way back into his ship and settled into the pilot's seat to guide it out of the hanger.  
“How’d they find me?” Callahan did the ghost equivalent of a shrug.  
“I dunno, only a few people have your number.” Callahan sent a quick message to Cayde as per request, including Shaxx and Ikora, notifying them that Arcturus was heading for the NA wilderness to take on a shadow and ask some questions. Along with a personal message to Cayde that he was now allowed to tell Commander Zavala everything, with the request that he take some pictures of his face when the news was relayed, to see if he was capable of displaying emotion.

Twenty seconds later Arcturus was doing mach 2 and accelerating towards the dense North American forest near the ruins of several small villages and where he had pulled Thorn out of Dredgen Yor’s cold dead fingers at the beginning of this sorry saga. Minutes later, they landed by a small lake. Near the edge of a massive forest which had once bordered the United States and Canada.  
The woods loomed overhead, dark whisperings seemed to creep along the trees, but Arcturus was a pure-blooded nightstalker, his light came alive most in the dark wilderness. Shadows rolled off his form, spilling around aimlessly as he entered the black foreboding woods.

Deep in the trees, light was limited, and his vision was never more perfect, picking perfectly from the covering leaves the trail of barely noticeable footprints. After a few more minutes of walking, he came across a small-ish clearing, and was greeted by a rasping voice.  
“Greetings, Dredgen Turin, so glad you’ve decided to join our little cause.” Arcturus raised a white eyebrow and laughed.  
“Flattering as the nickname is, I’m not here to join your little cult, I’m here to ask you what exactly you think you’re doing reviving hive-tech that killed a man many times stronger than any of you. Also, while I appreciate the flare for the dramatic, (you’re certainly following in Yor’s steps, he had quite a sense of style when he was sane), you’re not a chainsmoker, speak normally”

A chuckle came from the trees, followed by the wavy figure of a man stepping into the clearing.  
“If you have not come to join us, you have merely delivered into our arms something we wanted more than anything.” He turned to smoke with a menacing laugh. Arcturus rolled his eyes and spun on his heel, thrusting out his right hand and catching Dredgen Vale by his throat as he exited his shadestep. Utilising his three inches on the shorter hunter, he lifted him bodily into the air, his shooting hand drawing First Curse in a swift arc as he aimed at a far point in the trees.

The hand cannon let out one sharp crack as it discharged a round, screaming through the trees and hitting Dredgen Bane in his left eye. His shields disappeared as he fell from the tree. From what Arcturus saw from a hundred and thirty metres away, he broke his leg and shattered three ribs. One of which probably punctured his lung, he certainly didn’t get up, and no ghost appeared to revive him.  
Arcturus scowled at the man in his grasp.  
“Have you already forsaken your Ghosts?” Dredgen Vale gave a weak chuckle, mostly due to his air supply being limited.  
“We-” he coughed and Arcturus relaxed his grip slightly, allowing him air for now, “have followed in the footsteps of Yor, his accomplishments-” he cut off as Arcturus tightened his grip again.  
“You have accomplished nothing save throwing away your second chance.” First Curse spun, putting a bullet in the head of a third Shadows Acolyte as they attempted to sneak Thorn away from it’s holster. That hunter fell to the ground, a bullet hole directly through his helmet.

Vale gave another weak chuckle.  
“They’ll have your head for guardian murder in the city.” he choked out, around the hand obstructing his airflow. Arcturus let out a bitter laugh.  
“Did you forget who I am? I survived the slaughter at Mare Ibrium, the Battle of the Six Fronts, I’ve survived the Fallen’s razing of London and my entire home country, I pulled Thorn from Dredgen Yor’s cold dead fingers in this very forest after he’d been killed by Shin Malphur.” Arcturus let out another harsh laugh. “And I’m a risen, I’m one of the last risen, barring Saladin Forge, Efrideet and a few notable others. The consensus can’t pass judgement on me.”

Vale gargled in fear and hatred, Arcturus scoffed and threw him bodily backwards, he collided with a tree, spiked armour digging into the bark as he slid down. Vale struggled to his feet, and his light, weak though it was, coiled into an exceptionally spiky bow with a lethal looking arrow aimed straight at Arcturus’ heart. Vale fired.

Arcturus merely sidestepped, allowing the burning projectile to sweep past him and embed itself in the tree behind him, lashing out tethers that failed to capture anything in their repressing grasp. Vale attempted to shadestep into the surrounding wilderness to escape, but Arcturus rushed him, dragging his flailing form from the smoke with one final question and warning on his lips.  
“How did you feed your own little imitations of Thorn, and I warn you now, that while I let you live, if we cross paths again, I will revoke that privilege.”  
“We killed with our new, true gifts of the void in crucible,” Vale sneered “we offered sacrifice to our weapons, and in return they granted us the gift to silence others.”

Arcturus released his neck, and Vale vanished in a coughing fit, there was snap behind him as Bane was finally revived and disappeared, the hunter he had killed had truly forsaken his ghost, he lay dead and decomposing. Arcturus pulled Thorn from her rear holster, studying the weapon for any hints it could have been switched for a fake. He found none. Still holding the weapon in his hands, he whispered a message to a man with a name the speaker had erased from history.  
“See what you started?”

He could almost swear there was a whisper of “I’m sorry” from the trees.


End file.
